In a review of data from
the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), these methods
were significantly associated with losing 10 percent of body weight or more, at
least in the short term, Jacinda Nicklas, MD, MPH, of Beth Israel Deaconess
Medical Center in Boston, and colleagues reported in the American
Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Liquid diets, fad
diets, and using herbs and over-the-counter dietary products, on the
other hand, weren't linked with weight loss.

Several trials have looked
at the efficacy of various weight-loss strategies, but these often lack
generalizability, Nicklas and colleagues wrote.

So to assess what works in
the real world, they looked at NHANES data (2001-2006) on 4,021 obese adults,
63 percent of whom reported trying to lose weight in the previous year. Of
these, 40 percent lost at least 5 percent of their body weight, and 20 percent
lost at least 10 percent.

"Despite the popular
perception that obese people are unable to lose weight, a substantial
proportion of obese participants in this survey did report successful weight
loss, suggesting that some obese U.S. adults can and do lose weight," they
wrote.

The most popular strategies
were eating
less, exercising more, eating less fat, and switching to
lower-calorie foods. Only a small percentage used commercial weight-loss
programs, liquid diets, and prescription weight-loss medications.

The four factors
significantly associated with losing the most weight — at least 10
percent of body weight — were:

All of these were also associated
with losing at least 5 percent of body weight, except for weight-loss programs,
which were of borderline significance:

Eating
less fat.

Exercising
more.

Using
prescription weight-loss drugs.

Liquid diets,
over-the-counter diet
pills, and fad diets weren't at all linked with weight loss, and
eating special diet products made patients less likely to lose 10 percent of
their body weight, the researchers found.

It's possible that patients
may overeat these special products because they perceive them to be healthy or
low in calories, they said. And even though being in a weight-loss program may
require eating specially prepared foods, the findings suggest that the
structure of being in a program may play a bigger role in weight-loss success,
they added.

Still, these programs,
along with prescription weight-loss drugs, were only used by a small proportion
of Americans, even though they were associated with good results. Nicklas and
colleagues said this finding, along with wider use of over-the-counter diet
pills and herbal products that had no effect on weight loss, may signal a need
for greater public health efforts to get patients to adopt more proven dieting
methods.

They also said providers
should encourage greater use of the strategies that actually lead to successful
weight loss.

The study was limited
because of its cross-sectional nature and by a lack of information on whether
weight loss was maintained.

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